NIA chargesheets one person in Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan petrol bomb case

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge-sheet against one individual in the Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan Petrol bomb case, the agency said on Saturday.
The chargesheet was filed before an NIA Special Court at Poonamallee in Chennai on Friday under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act 1908, along with Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Property (Prevention of Damages and Loss) Act 1992.
The charge-sheeted accused, Vinoth alias Karukka Vinoth, had hurled two petrol bombs in quick succession at the Raj Bhavan Gate 1 in Chennai on October 25 last year in the case (RC-03/2023/NIA/CHE), said the NIA, adding "the bomb had resulted in explosion and damages to the government property located at the gate."
The NIA said that this was the fourth such incident involving the accused.
"Previously, Vinoth had thrown petrol bombs at government establishments like the TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) outlet in T Nagar, the Teynampet Police Station and the BJP Tamil Nadu State Head Office in Chennai," the NIA added.
In the recent case, the accused, the NIA said, intending to overawe the constitutional authority of the state governor, had stolen petrol from a bike in SM Nagar, collected empty liquor bottles to fill them with petrol, walked up from Teynampet to Raj Bhawan, and had hurled two petrol bombs at the Raj Bhavan gate at around 2.40 p.m.
The on-duty police personnel had immediately rushed towards the accused person to restrain him, but the latter had threatened them and thus deterred them from the discharge of their duty.
Based on a special report by police personnel, a case was initially registered at Guindy Police Station. The case was re-registered by the NIA on November 10, last year.